ed and half-eaten bodies were discovered on
the floor of their hut in the morning. Evidence pointed to their having
been killed by a tiger; and as they had been the sworn enemies of the
young man whose metamorphosis I had witnessed, it was not difficult to
guess at the identity of their destroyer.

"I related my adventure to one of the chief people, and he informed me
he knew that particular kulpa-tree well. 'You undoubtedly owe your
salvation to having touched it,' he said. 'The original kulpa, which now
stands in the first heaven, is said to have been one of the fourteen
remarkable things turned up by the churning of the ocean by the gods and
demons; and the name of Ram and his consort Seeter are written on the
silvery trunks of all its earthly descendants. If once you touch any
portion of a kulpa briksha tree, you are quite safe from any
animal--that is why the wer-tiger snarled and ran away! But take my
advice, sahib, and leave the village.'

"I did so, and on the way to my home in the hills visited the tree.
There, sure enough, plainly visible on the silvery surface in the
twilight, was the name of the incarnation of Vishnu, written in Sanskrit
characters, and apparently by some supernatural hand; that is to say,
there was a softness in the impression, as if the finger of some
supernatural being had traced the characters. I did not want any further
proofs--I had had enough; and taking good care to see my gun was loaded,
I hurried off. Nor have I ever ventured into that neighbourhood since."

Mr. K----, continuing, informed me that from what he had been told by
his friend in the Kandh village, he concluded that only those who had
been initiated into the full rites of magic in their early youth could
see the totem in its full state of materialization, _i.e._, an enormous
tiger--half man and half beast. To those who were in some degree
clairvoyant it would appear as it had appeared to him, a mere column of
crimson light (crimson on account of its association with Black Magic);
whilst to those who were not in any way clairvoyant it would remain
entirely invisible. The young Kandh had prayed for the property of
lycanthropy solely as a means of revenge on those whom he imagined had
wronged him; and as a wer-tiger he was able to destroy them in the most
cruel manner possible. The property when once acquired, however, could
never be cast off, and the young man would, willy-nilly, undergo
transmutation every night, and in